A Wanted Rose: Rewrite
by rwbybomb21
Summary: Your favourite story of mine, completely rewritten for your enjoyment! Ruby Rose, a girl wanted for crimes she did not commit, has to survive in the wilderness known as Remnant, and has had to her whole life. Things take a turn when she's unwillingly enrolled into Beacon, and her life changes. But for the better or worse is still the question on her mind.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this is a thing now; the re-written story of A Wanted Rose. This will be epic, this will be the same story you loved...just a little bit more- or less- added in- or taken away, respectively. I hope you all enjoy; I know you've all bee waiting a while for this. So HERE IT IS!**

(^^^^^^)

A little girl in a red cloak was all that could be seen in the pitch black of night; the red barely distinguishable form the darkness that practically cloaked her, as if shielding her from some evil or another. Darkness was no such evil as it was necessary. There was no such thing as a necessary evil, only necessary...and evil.

Tonight however the girl shrouded by darkness was, in fact, seen as evil- blight, a monster, something to scoff at then walk away once you had been done ridiculing it. Darkness was never truly held back by light, as was the now same as the girl slowly walked her way through the fear-inducing streets of Vale City.

Then the girl vanished, nothing eleft behind but a small storm of red petals, slowly dissipating from view forever.

Thrown out at birth, Ruby Rose had it harder than any Faunus. Having to defend herself from humans and other Faunus alike, she grew up in a harsh world filed with harsher truths; adapt or die, and she had adapted...though maybe not the right adaptation.

Currently, she was wanted for crimes that would make Roman Torchwick himself spit coffe all over the place at what they accused her of. She was accused of numerous accounts of murder, assault, burglary, pick pocketing, stealing from Schnee Dust Company trains, armed robbery, vandalism, and a number of other crimes.

All of these, of course, were false allegations. But people either didn't care to look into it or never bothered, seeing as she was a wolf Faunus after all. She never knew why Faunus hated her as well, though she had heard one Faunus while they beat her until she started to bleed out from her injuries at the age of seven that wolf Faunus were the lowest of them all. Ruby then began to hate the world and everyone in it, and so went to the White fang, hearing of their involvement in some Faunus Rights protests, claiming they were seeking equality for all Faunus. Of course, she was naive back then and figured they meant her kind as well, and so went to them to try and help any way she could.

She was battered, stabbed, slashed, burnt, had her ribs broken and thrown out of the place until she almost died; again.

When she was nine she made her sniper scythe, Crescent Rose. Made completely out of junk she found at scrap-yards and inside rubbish bins, Ruby had created the deadliest weapon known to man and Faunus kind alike.

She had become a stuttering, gibbering, frightened mess at the tender age of five. She'd found herself in a situation which would be better not to be repeated, and it broke her, shattered her mind and fragmented the shattered pieces to something completely devoid of innocence and childish glee. She was broken, like the moon she proposed, and decided that if she couldn't beat them as they did her, then she'd simply let it happen and hope for a quick death.

Currently the little broken girl was walking towards a certain goal of reaching a certain temple in the middle of a certain Snowy Forest, headed towards the pit of beowolves she knew she would have to fight. Walking through the trees was not a problem, neither was her upcoming fight with the creatures of Grimm; it was the fact that these creatures would usually howl and growl really loud and it would surely attract Hunter attention if she were not careful to dispatch them quickly.

She arrived, and as usual, they were there; in fact she'd find it odd if they weren't there. It would start off as just three of them, and then there would be five, seven, and ten. It would then multiply to the twenties, then the fifties, and finally into the two hundred range. She never had a problem with dealing with them and it usually took no sooner than five minutes, and never took a hit while she sprayed the fluffy white snow with red blood that would just-as soon dissipate into nothing but vanishing petals.

She did her usual waiting. She would do this every time; lure the Grimm into her and disappear at the last possible second, arrive above them and shoot them dead before the even spotted her. After this she would land in a roll and shoot off three more, switching her scythe into its full glory and sniping off eleven more, before slicing two into ribbons and another three into shreds. After this Ruby would use her recoil from the gun to shoot herself up into the air, kill three Grimm that would pursue her into the air, block a forth one and then come to a screeching halt, using her scythe to slow her backwards sliding from the blow.

Occasionally after that she would go into a full on death dance of murder, slicing full beowolves into two and three, quartering some and even turning others to sludge. After it all, she would continue to the small temple of which she made her new home.

She did do all of this, and on the way to returning to her 'home' she caught an unfamiliar whiff of an unmistakeable scent of human. That was later proven to be true as she hid in the forest brush that surrounded her 'home' and waited for the human to pass. That was when she caught the unmistakeable scent of Grimm as well, and immediately went into full on protective mode. Even though humans hated her, and she only saw the grey of the world; the fact that even if she was hated, people still needed protecting. She would still protect those that needed it. It was this childish naivety that had gotten her in this mess in the first place.

That was when she saw a mass of platinum blond and what seemed to be a riding crop run away from three Ursa. If Ruby didn't help this auspiciously clothed woman then she would find the blood of an innocent on her hands; metaphorically, of course. without a second thought, when the woman ran out of breath and fell flat on her face, raising a glyph above her head to stop one of the Ursa's attacks, Ruby jumped in without thinking for her own safety and sliced the beast in two as she expertly spun the scythe around her and pirouetted to the side of an attack from the second Ursa, only to slice its legs in two and turn to the third one, to see it gone from her vision.

' _It couldn't be Reaper, here of all places! Red cloak, wolf ears...scythe.'_ the woman on the floor had gotten up, only to see the fugitive who had saved her slice the second beast in two, but not before slicing its legs off. There was something behind the girl though, and she shouted for her to look out behind her.

"Behind you!" she screamed, but it was too late. That is, if it were anyone else. Reaper just turned into a cloud of petals and appeared behind the beast. Without a second thought, she raised her hands that grasped the scythe and spun it in front of her, catching the beasts arms first, then head and finally the rest of its body, pulverizing it.

After all was said and done, Ruby turned on her heels and began to walk, before a commanding voice stopped her dead in her tracks. She couldn't hear well, due to the euphoria of killing having not worn off yet, but she knew well to stand at attention and turn to face the woman. She expected some sort of berating or beating; possibly both.

"Don't move!" the woman said, and before Ruby could actually think of moving, she felt a slight stinging sensation and a sound of something buzzing. Her silver eyes widened in fear; had she just done something wrong? Usually people only used tasers for when Ruby had done something really bad.

"I-I-I'm sorry f-f-for interrupting..." Ruby had hoped it would appease the clearly angered woman, but apparently not, as she watched on with a groan of sadness as the woman in question was presumably cranking up the voltage.

The woman with bleached blonde hair tilted her head in confusion; did Reaper mean the Ursa? No matter. She shook her head and cranked up the voltage of her stun gun. Firing once more, she could see where some skin began to sizzle and Reaper began to hiss in pain. Maybe the voltage was a bit too high.

She winced as she felt what felt like fire burning into her leg, but as the adrenaline wore off, so did the heightened sense of pain that came with it oftentimes, and so Ruby kept standing, if only barely.

Another shot from the tazer, and Ruby was down and out before she could even blink.

(^^^^^^)

Waking had never felt as painful as it did to Ruby now; did she run into a gang or something while out last night? No, she couldn't have, if she did she'd remember the after-effects of rape and multiple knives piercing her skin, the beatings afterwards what she presumed would be what knocked her out and then her waking up in a cell or something, where police had found her body and simply capitalised on the fact that criminal was there; not the fact that she had been practically tortured in a back-alley.

She did remember the numbing feeling of electricity, as was proven correct when she tried to move her hand, only to feel numbness. It must have been quite the high voltage for her entire body to be numb.

And it hit her like a brick to the face- which, ironically, she had the displeasure of feeling before. Her situation was an oddly dire one, looking down only to prove her own fears correct. She was chained to the floor with extremely thick and insanely locked chains, along with two different sets of handcuffs around her wrists, complete with a small leash tied to her neck, connecting her with the bolted-to-the-floor table. A sick racist joke by the local police force, no doubt.

The door was opened quickly, and with no intention of giving her the feeling of hope that escape was a possibility; she was known for escaping when the police captured her, it was something she'd picked up- how to pick the locks of handcuffs, how to pick the pockets of policemen for keys...how to pick your way out of a heavily guarded police cell.

It was all very elaborate, but as she had just finished picking the first of the handcuffs discreetly, the two figures that she expected to be your standard grunts of VPD's finest had, in fact, gave her pause; in the place of two gruff, forty-something detectives with a penchant for 'bad cop evil cop', was a woman she presumed to be in her early to mid twenties, and a man with greying hair that was most likely about fifty. Boss and subordinate?

The second pair of handcuffs was halfway done when the grey-haired bespectacled man unknown to her spoke up, causing her concentration to slip and an almost inaudible crack to sound through the room. She still had her face facing forwards as frightened as could be, but the best facial expressions were just distractions. Act frightened enough and cops tended to capitalise on it, invading personal space and getting close enough for her to lift their keys from their pockets. Act angry enough and they usually never came close enough to notice her picking her way through her restraints.

But act paranoid enough, and you could gain the best thing ever; empathy and sympathy. You could walk your way out of a place by simple acting, but the truth of the matter was...Ruby wasn't acting when she did these things. These were all real to her, all her own emotions that emerged when the time decided to drag it out from her hidden depths.

Paranoia was the emotion that showed itself the most, followed closely by Fear; anger, whilst the rarest to emerge form its inky depths, was the most damaging. She'd snap for the littlest things, she'd kill and maim...so she guessed her wanted status was no hoax after all. But she was never conscious when she did those things, so she could hardly be held accountable. Right...?

"So," the grey haired man leaned in, hands clasped together; he noted that, expectedly, she moved out of his range, hoping to stay as far away form him before he did something injuring to her. "Can you tell me your name?"

Ruby snapped out of her fear-induced delirium of backing away from Ozpin, and immediately opened her eyes as wide as possible while freezing, noting the woman slowly flank her form the left; she needed to get out of here now! They may not look like cops, but they had the same cold professionalism that any law enforcement officer would. She began pushing the speed at which she could pick a handcuff, and she had succeeded too, the click of her handcuffs opening caused the man to smile fondly and the woman to freeze in shock. No way she picked her way out of a collar, two pairs of handcuffs, chains locked with three padlocks on her feet and to boot a metal table of which they all connected to.

Ruby shot upwards as son as she felt her freedom form the restrictions, only to feel a gravitational force push down on her; a glyph, she realised.

Panicking, she pushed her legs to their almost maximum potential; if she pushed them to the complete maximum, Ruby would fly through the ceiling if she attempted to jump. She jumped through the narrow hole that the glyph left, much to the woman's surprise, and just as the woman was going to pull out her stun gun and Ruby froze, the man began clapping his hands. Slowly, but it caught both females' attentions.

Lowering the now un-holstered tazer gun, she turned to her boss...of a sorts. "Sir?"

He stopped his applause of the scene her had just witnessed, and smiled as Ruby looked a little more panicked; clearly she wasn't used to fondness or kindness in any form. How tragic, he thought with a frown; this girl had to be about fourteen, fifteen at the most, and to lead a life such as this, with abuse and what he assumed was torture at every turn...simply shocking. His smile turned sad, but Reaper and Glynda, his associate, didn't notice.

He ignored Glynda, opting to try and calm the skittish Reaper; rumours of the girl were not exaggerated, just switched around, they say she can't fight, but can flee. While the fleeing is true, she can fight just as sneakily and good, if not better.

"My name is Ozpin." Placing a hand to his chest as he introduced himself, he smiled a little at the look of mixed confusion and slight, if only just, fear. He then pointed to his associate, who rolled her eyes- this man was far too lenient on criminals. "This is Glynda, a professor at Beacon Academy."

Ruby tilted her head; as intrigued as she was, she preferred staying as close to the door as possible, just in case they tried something. Meekly she spoke up, flinching afterwards when she noticed Ozpin frown at her words. "I, u-u-uh...haven't heard o-of Beacon." Her voice was soft, softer than silk they reckoned, and Glynda began to think.

How could a criminal, supposedly a veteran one from the extensive file she was given, be this...this sweet?

(^^^^^^)

They still hadn't left, and just as a precaution- with the use of multiple threats to use the tazer again- Glynda had tied Reaper in place with some left over chain and a handcuff for measures; though she had no doubt the girl could easily escape, just as she did before.

Glynda slapped her crop down on the table next to Reaper, who jumped and whined as a dog would when being shouted at by its master. In an idea world, Glynda wouldn't even need to do this; this girl, for all she knew, could be completely innocent of the crimes she was supposedly accused of.

Then again this wasn't an ideal world, better safe than sorry.

Making sure the girl was literally shaking in fear from head to toe, she ignored the glare Ozpin sent her way and brought up the video feed showing Reaper dicing up about four hundred beowolves or so. She glared viciously, though a little bit of her hated the pure fear on the girl's face. "Now, tell me where you learnt to do this!?"

"I-I-I Taught M-My self. Pleasedon'thurtme!" Ruby started to cower away from them, backing up in her chair away from them with genuine fear in her eyes. Glynda looked almost heartbroken at the girl's begging. She must have been through a lot to be like this. But she steeled herself, because for all she knew this girl could be a criminal. For all she knew...she could admit to herself her opinion was a little jaded, considering the fact that Reaper had just saved her from becoming a main course in the daily diet of three Ursa, but she knew next to nothing about the girl in the first place.

Ozpin just huffed, and at that, Glynda shot him a glare. Glynda walked over to the panicky Ruby and untied her chains, then walked back over to Ozpin, who shot her a look that screamed _'hypocrite'_. She admitted maybe her earlier assessment and treatment of the girl was...unneeded, but now she could be sure the girl was hardly worth calling a threat, she was unchained.

"Now why would we hurt you?" he knew why, oh boy did he know why; she was a wolf Faunus. It wasn't a secret why she was constantly called a criminal and abused, and it was all because she was the last of the wolf Faunus and being the last of something showed weakness. Weakness in the Faunus community was something they would not allow, under any circumstances; be it even working with the humans to eradicate her or bring her to 'justice', but the crimes she had apparently committed were nothing but speculation of what she _could_ do. Not what she has done.

"Be-Because t-That's what h-h-humans do." Ruby had a look of confusion on her face, no longer fear, though it was still evident she was scared of them both. "E-Even other F-F-Faunus too..." her ears flattened to her scalp when she muttered those last words, and Glynda could feel the ice around her crack with each passing second.

Ozpin looked as if forgotten in thought for a moment, and snapped out of it was an idea came to him. He had contemplated doing it before, but she either got away too quickly, or he had to leave to do some important headmaster stuff...with which he just dumped on Glynda to do instead.

"What do you think of hunters and huntresses?"

"I-I "don't know...T-They're g-g-good guys?"

"Have you ever considered becoming one?" Ozpin just sipped at his coffee again as Ruby grew even more cautious and confused as to where this was going.

"U-Umm, not r-r-really...W-Why?" Ruby was very scared of these two, no matter the subject brought at hand, or the type of subject. She had been through these scenarios before, and it still scared her to even think about it.

"Just the way you jumped in to save poor Glynda here from being eaten by three Ursa Majors was rather heroic of you...for a criminal." Ruby winced, and shrunk in on herself, beginning to whine when he called her that. "Well, what would you say if I brought you to Beacon Academy and taught you to be a huntress in training?"

"I just F-Fight to survive, N-Not save others..." She felt so conflicted; protecting people form the monsters they deserved to be torn apart by? Or continue to suffer at the hands of those people?

Is that a yes or a no?" Ozpin had a look of urgency in his eyes, as if he actually wanted the most wanted girl in all of Vale and possibly Atlas in his school, which Ruby found crazy.

"I-I-I don't have a choice, do I?" Ruby looked like she was defeated, as if she didn't want to go, though it was rather understandable. She was wanted for crimes she had not committed, and this would create uproar in Beacon. It was far from it that Ruby had no choice, though Ozpin could see why she would think that. He took this as an answer and left, leaving Glynda to sit down and fill out her application form.

(^^^^^^)

 **Well, this is the re-written first chapter of A Wanted Rose. Let me know in the reviews what you think, and I'll be sure to listen to each and every one of you...even if I don't actually speak to you. Just know that I listened.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this took so long, I was racking my brain trying to come up with some way to either extend this or improve it. In the end, though, all I ended up doing was removing some things and correcting a few mistakes and plot-holes.**

 **Sorry, but enjoy anyway.**

 **(^^^^^^)**

Beacon was a very big school, that much was obvious; but with Ruby's keen Faunus eyes she could see individual bricks, the very fine details that humans glazed over, and sighed with content. To her, this school was beautiful, and was enough to calm her as she travelled the school's infirmary, following Glynda, who would occasionally look back to see her and smile.

On her travelling with Glynda, she hadn't seen a single Faunus yet, and so began to worry, but soon calmed down as she smelled her favourite flowers blooming; roses- well, she liked them, but they weren't her favourite...come to think of it, she couldn't really remember her favourite. Glynda questioned why she had stopped to sniff the air, but her only answer was a small smile and shake of the head.

Glynda noticed something though; every time Ruby took a step, she would wince and slightly quicken her pace. There must've been something wrong with her otherwise walking would be fine for her. At this, Glynda took a last moment turn to the area known as General Infirmary. Ruby barely managed to follow, but she saw the sign of where they were going, and stopped dead in her tracks, beginning to back away from it.

Glynda turned on her heel when she heard the whimpering, but was met with a scared look in Ruby's eyes, terrified as if the very thing she looked at was something to fear; she followed the area of where her eyes were looking and saw the sign. _'She must be scared of hospitals as well...Poor girl.'_ Glynda thought as she watched Ruby eye the sign in terror.

"You wait here. I'll go get what I need and be back here in a moment." Ruby nodded and stayed rooted to her position.

Not a moment later, Glynda came out with arms full of disinfectants, bandages, scissors, burn cream and other medical mysteries to Ruby; the last time she was in a hospital was to get treated, but once they realized who she was, they literally threw her out of the front door, leaving her with various uncured and possibly infected wounds. It hurt her to walk, and the pressure her weapon put on her back helped slightly, but not enough to dispel the pain altogether.

"W-What's all th-that for?" Ruby eyed her carefully, waiting for her to make some sudden moves or something that would give her cause to fear humans further. People tended to betray her quite often...like when she lost her arm, for example...

Glynda set the medical equipment down and looked Ruby in the eye for a second before speaking. "I've noticed that when you walk you wince, as if it hurts you. Does it?" while her tone was far from caring, and was a little stern, Ruby could have swore she heard a hint of apology in the tip of Glynda's tongue; why would the woman apologise for something she had no part in? It made no sense to her.

"Y-Yeah... But...I've dealt with it." Ruby tied to avoid Glynda's look, before changing the subject on what the things she had brought in were. She honestly had no idea what any of the things were, and so asked, "What are those?" pointing to a pile of what seemed to be white, thin paper; but her nose picked up a scent of dried alcohol, so maybe they were to disinfect? She'd had to use alcohol more than once to disinfect her wounds, so the chances of such a thing were high.

"They're bandages." Glynda's tone of voice had changed from stern to confused; how could someone not know what bandages were? It was pretty simple, everyone knew...didn't they?

"What are they for?" Ruby let her shyness disappear and allowed her curious side to take over. This question brought a frown of confusion to Glynda.

"They're used to dress wounds; you know _that_...don't you?" Ruby just shook her head and Glynda let out a sigh. She knew that the girl had it rough, but never knew this.

"Ruby; lift up your corset so I can see why it hurts to walk." Ruby considered going against Glynda in an act of embarrassment, but thought better of it since the last time she went against what someone wanted, she was beaten and left at that previously mentioned hospital.

For the first time in nearly thirty years of teaching and seeing various wounds, most grizzly, Glynda felt like throwing up. As Ruby lifted up her corset, a red bra covering her top half, scars of all sizes, burns, cuts- some old, some new- and even some that resembled areas where a car battery had been used could clearly be seen- the pale skin that acted as a canvas highlighted everything, as if her scars were brightly coloured paint against a dark backdrop; let's just say they were hard to miss. The worse of it was on her back, however, as that had much more serious and possibly fatal injuries dotting it; cigarette marks, slashes from- what seemed to be- a whip, massive unhealed scratches and scars, along with some injuries that simply refused to become scars. On her left arm- which became exposed when Ruby took off her corset- were multiple unhealed bruises, cuts, scabs that won't change from that and even more cigarette burns. The only reason Glynda didn't throw up was because the marks and burns were at least spaced out, so she wasn't covered in them, but they would be noticeable.

Incredibly noticeable; you'd have to be blind with your eyes pulled form their sockets not to see the girl's jigsaw-like body.

All she could say was "What happened to you?" Ruby just looked away shyly as an answer, clearly not wanting to approach the subject of the matter. It must've been a painful childhood and clearly she had been tortured; as for the reason...well, Glynda could guess. These marks would fade, but the scars would always be there. What some of those scars were actually from, as it seemed, were Grimm; more specifically, a rare type of Grimm, as the scars were slightly rounded. Glynda took careful note to ask her what she fought to gain these scars, but though better of it since it was clearly a painful subject to approach.

Glynda immediately wrapped bandages starting from Ruby's left wrist and ending at her shoulder. Then, she set to work applying cream to the already healed burns, but doing this would give a way to see if it was infected. Ruby didn't even bat an eyelash at this, which showed another thing she had gotten used to.

Glynda couldn't actually remember a time she'd heard of people being able to withstand these kinds of injuries- hell, she'd be cringing and curling like a ball to get rid of the pain that most definitely is present with said wounds...but Ruby hardly moved a muscle.

She did so on the injury that looked like it was caused by a car battery, and immediately Ruby held in a grunt of pain. Glynda heard this and wrapped the bandage around it carefully but firmly, making sure not to cause her any more undue injury. She finished wrapping the bandages around her stomach and back, and when she looked upon her crafty work to see the results, Ruby looked as if she was just ordered to go and hug a beowolf, then walk naked into a den of Ursa, and lastly play tag with a King Taijutu. The layers of bandages that Ruby wore weren't enough to restrict her movement in any way, but enough to make her feel uncomfortable...but also extremely hot at the same time.

"Ruby; do the corset and dress mean a lot to you?" Glynda had an idea, but it would require Ruby's full support for it to work.

"No, b-but the cloak does." The cloak would work for Glynda's plan, as she had no intention for Ruby walk around with just her idea anyway. A cloak could actually compliment the look she had in mind; call it a look she got from reading one of her student's manga by accident- pure coincidence that her eyes drifted to the page he was reading, honestly. Ruby pulled her corset back down and laced it together almost expertly, fingers looping the laces through their slots before tying it all up, almost robotically.

"Okay, follow me..." Glynda led her to her private quarters to find the tailor that lived near there. He was a big help in fashioning whatever Glynda had asked for.

 **(^^^^^^)**

Ruby finally emerged from the closet of Glynda's, who was stood patiently waiting. When Ruby walked out, she looked like some sort of ancient warrior from the old times when wars were waged with swords, not guns; she wore a black leather jacket with sleeves that stopped just at her wrist. On the sleeves were black straps which allowed for fingerless, black gloves to hook on, making it look as if part of the outfit. On Ruby's request, she had it made with red accents that travelled along the sleeves and stopped at the edge of the gloves, providing a feel that the torso part of the 'suit', so to speak, could be used without the gloves, simply as a piece of clothing rather than battle gear. On her legs were a pair of red and black leather combat pants, made from extremely rare Deathstalker hide, which gave it a natural red glow. Not many people had the pleasure of wearing the protective gear, Glynda being one of them, but if you were to wear it you would describe it in three words; Impossible to tear.

On her feet were black and red combat boots, but they were fitted with red straps and re-made with nevermore leather. Ruby had to appreciate the gesture, but why a human would do this for her is unfathomable, even to her superiorly smarter brain. She was always able to remember things, anything she picked up from the old books and read from ancient scrolls. Needless to say, she loved reading.

Ruby stood before the mirror provided by a smiling Glynda and stared at her image in awe; she looked like a hero, some sort of ancient warrior of light. Her reaction was priceless to Glynda, and in the first time for nearly five years, she smiled; a true, genuine smile that radiated pride. At last the awe stricken girl turned to Glynda and spoke, breaking the easy silence that dominated the room. What she asked though, was not what she was expecting. She was expecting a question of the price, or the materials used to make it, but not this one.

"Th-Thanks, so much f-for this...But why do this for me?" Ruby didn't look sad, she actually looked kind of happy. It was the first real thing that had been gifted to her by someone. Her voice was still small and shy, but there was a sounding tone of happiness and relief in it.

"I see you like the outfit." Ruby heard Glynda's mutter, but became wary when Ruby looked at her with a titled head. "I am giving this to you, because I see a girl who hasn't been given anything to call her own since she was born, a girl who has never once had a real possession of her own, and so you can consider this a gift from me to you. Now we really should get going, because otherwise you'll be late to the initiation."

Ruby looked as if this was the first time someone had ever said anything remotely nice to her; unbeknownst to Glynda, it kinda was.

"But first, you should go and rest. It _is_ tomorrow after all..." This brought Glynda to an idea, a questioning but rather valid one, if you will; "Ruby, did you bring anything to sleep in?"

"I sleep with the cloak. It keeps me warm, and I-I am a wolf Faunus, after-after all. I just sleep in anything." Ruby said it meekly, shuffling from one foot to the other with her eyes looking slightly down as if in embarrassment.

Glynda sighed before wordlessly leading the girl to the hall where the other students were getting ready for sleep. Ruby kept her outfit on and raised the hood over her ears as to not draw unwanted human attention to herself, but her eyes constantly flicked from left to right, patrolling the room with every step she went.

That was when she heard something that made her heart stop and blood run cold.

"Hey Ren, guess what!? Oh, Pyrrha, Jaune, guess what too!?"The orange haired one known as Nora Valkiryie shouted overly joyous in her orange and pink outfit. The blonde one, which she could only guess was Jaune, breathed an annoyed sigh, whereas Pyrrha just listened on, nodding for her to continue. The boy in green, which she guesses as well was Ren, just shook his head.

"What is it Nora?" Jaune said, rather exasperated.

"You will never guess who's coming to our school~" Nora sang in a rather high pitched voice, causing Ruby to wince and her ears to flick rather protectively to avoid deafening.

"Well...?" Jaune edged her to continue speaking, and what Nora said next was what made her freeze up.

"A criminal is coming to Beacon!" she shouted it rather loudly, catching the ears of the other students and causing their gazes to fall on her. She continued, unperturbed. "It's true, you know. I wanna meet him..." Ren sighed and Ruby slightly relaxed, before she spoke again and Ren gained an angry look, while all Pyrrha and Jaune could do was collective face palming. "...Then break his legs!"

"Nora, did you actually find out who this person is?"

"Yep!" Ruby's heart caught in her mouth, and immediately she started to back away from them. She had her ribs and an arm broken before, and it hurt; a lot. Of course, Ruby was very protective of her legs because without them her semblance was useless; well, one of them, anyway. She started to pick up her backward walking pace to avoid their eyes, which were all focused on Nora's incessant rambling.

She had also lost her arm, which is why she was so protective of the right arm. Instead of a small stump, she added a robotic replacement, something to allow her to continue fighting with her sweetheart, and with her arm as strong as it was, she could practically grab an oncoming blade without so much as a scratch. Not that she'd tried, but this was all 'in theory'...not that there ever was a theory involving robotic arms in the first place, but whatever.

None in the hall saw her leave and sleep outside in the open air, under the countless stars and galaxies smiling down on her; at least they smiled at her, the others inside probably didn't even notice the exit she made, and probably never saw her, but the stars gave her a comfort no human or Faunus could give her. When in her temple, she shot herself up on top of the roof and slept up there to be consoled by the light that the shattered moon granted.

One thought trekked through her mind when she slept, and it was of peace and happiness for all races; even her, though she'd never admit that she'd happily sacrifice that happiness if it meant others could be happy. Hell, she had been doing so for nearly her whole life, so she could endure it for the rest of her life.

(^^^^^^)

Lava-like eyes lit up, and she sat straight from her throne; well, hardly a throne, but it could be called that since it resembled something a king sat on.

She had a feeling; a feeling so strong it woke her from her peaceful slumber, and caused her chest to burn with an unfamiliar pain and her eyes to water unconsciously.

She blinked back the tears, wondering what had brought them on in the first place.

Her orange eyes closed as she shrugged; probably nothing.


End file.
